Childhood's End
by Screaming Faeries
Summary: Rodolphus was innocent before he was corrupted by the wolf. It would take ten years, but he soon would learn his earlier lesson.


**Childhood's End**

"' _til you came at last to the edge of the woods,  
It was there that I first clapped eyes on the wolf."_

The Leaky Cauldron was a familiar pub for most witches and wizards. Personally, I made a habit of visiting the run down old place for a drink whenever I was in Diagon Alley. There wasn't really anywhere else that I would have dreamt of spending my free time—the Leaky Cauldron had many dark corners, for keeping dark secrets.

I was fresh out of Hogwarts when she came into my life. I knew her from school, of course—we were both in Slytherin, and Slytherins tended to spend their time primordially together. However, it was as though I hadn't really _seen_ her until that fateful evening in the Leaky Cauldron.

She was leaning against the bar, swirling the crimson liquid around the glass she was holding. Her dark eyes were focused on me, a leering smirk growing on her porcelain features. Her supple curves were swathed in a tight dress crafted from ebony velvet, and her pointed nails were painted the same shade. Upon catching my eye, she stalked confidently towards me, her long tresses of sleek raven hair cascading in a shimmering waterfall down her back as she walked.

"Good evening," she purred, and slid gracefully into the seat opposite me. She drained the remainder of her drink and placed the glass down on the table, her eyes never leaving mine. She was even more beautiful up close, and I found it difficult not to glance at her ample bosom, as her cleavage was visible through her low cut dress. "You're in luck tonight; I have chosen you to buy me a drink."

The words of my father echoed through me. He had never appreciated confident women, and like most Pureblood, old-fashioned men, he wanted women to stay at home and be the good little obedient wives. I knew that I should run as far away from this terrifying woman as possible, but her intimidating disposition was too alluring for me to ignore.

I found that it was easy to do exactly what Bellatrix Black wanted me to. She told me to buy her a drink, and I hurried straight up to the bar and brought back a deep glass of wine. She demanded to know my name, and I told her that I was Rodolphus Lestrange, even though I was sure she remembered me from school. Her heeled shoe made rough grooves down my calves, and I knew that she was taking me home that night.

As the sun sank lower and the night grew darker, our glasses continued to refill magically until it was difficult to see Bellatrix clearly. She still paralysed me to the bone with enchanting fear, but through the haze of alcohol, my confidence grew.

I let my hand fall upon hers and my thumb caressed her skin. Her eyes flickered across to me, and her mouth stretched open in a cruel laugh. I noticed the red wine that stained her teeth and gums, and a shiver of anticipation coursed through me. It looked like blood.

* * *

" _The wolf, I knew, would lead me deep into the woods  
_ _Away from home, to a dark tangled thorny place."_

It was past midnight when Bellatrix pulled me through the woodlands that she said surrounded her home. She clutched my hand tightly as she weaved through shadowy, snaking trees which soared into the sky. Her movements were graceful and fluid; she had made this journey a hundred times before. Unlike me, I was new to this. My clothes snagged and tore on branches, leaving behind little clues of my furtive adventure.

Her family house in the country was as dark as she, but I didn't get much of a chance to admire the historic old building. Bellatrix whisked me through the narrow corridors to the top of the house, until I was trapped with her in her windowless lair.

Things soon took a dangerous turn. The smirk on Bellatrix's face grew wider, her eyes glittering cruelly. She threw me on top of the satin sheets of her bed, and I was glued to her as she began to remove her clothes slowly, sensually, taking as long as possible, making sure that I was drinking in every inch of her demure body. She waited until I was sure that every pore in my body was going to burst with excitement, and then crawled across the expanse of the bed, securing me with her thighs.

My first time with a woman was bloody and ruthless; Bellatrix seemed to melt above me, contorting herself around my body in all the right ways. Her fingers raked down my back, leaving wine coloured welts, and her teeth nipped at my neck. Purple bruises erupted across my skin like vampire footprints, and I knew I would have to hide the proof of my evening from my parents.

She writhed and thrashed and screamed until I couldn't take it anymore. I succumbed to her charm, but I didn't know that it would be the biggest mistake I would ever make.

* * *

" _But then I was young – and it took ten years  
_ _In the woods to tell that a mushroom  
_ _Stoppers the mouth of a buried corpse."_

Somehow Bellatrix and I married, but things weren't always bright and beautiful.

It didn't take me long to learn that Bellatrix wasn't the mysterious animal that she had led me to believe. She howled the same song at the moon week in and week out, seducing various innocent men to her lair to be tainted by her malevolence.

When I finally grew tired of the way that Bellatrix was treating me, I thought that there was only one thing that I could do.

I approached her while she slept. She was always beautiful, my Bellatrix, even when time began to take it's toll on her. Her eyelids were heavy and her lashes long, and her wide red mouth was always curved in an inviting smile.

An axe the size of my arm hung from my hand. Tears pricked my eyes, but I rose it above my head, ready to strike the wolf where she slept.

But her eyes cracked open. She snapped her fingers once, and I felt my arm freeze. "Don't be stupid," she hissed. "And get back in bed."

* * *

 **Written For:**

The Fairytale Challenge - Little Red Riding Hood

Inspired by the poem "Little Red Cap" by Carol Ann Duffy.


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